In this late 2008, five scientific spacecrafts are studying Mars; either from the surface or the orbit including the NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, PHOENIX has just finished its spectacular exploration of its icy landing site.

Projects of moon robotic study exist in all space agencies including the agencies of India and China . Access to the moon orbit is also one of the design parameters of the NASA Crew Exploration Vehicle and renewed manned operations on the moon are now in the form of realistic plans. This exploration of the moon is important for its own sake and also as a preparation for a manned exploration of Mars in thirty years from now. Studies on new automatic preparatory mission to Mars are currently underway also in most of the space agencies.

The recent discoveries performed by the Cassini-Huygens missions in the Saturn system as well as renewed interest in the Jupiter icy moons leads to the design of new missions especially aimed at the icy satellites.

We invite for this session papers on the results of present missions to these celestial bodies and papers studying diverse aspects of their interior, subsurface and external environment. Papers on future missions and especially on human exploration are also welcome, with in the case of human exploration, emphasis on the mitigation of hazards presented by soil, dust and radiation.
The prospective aspects of space exploration are also presnted by the stakeholders of this enterprise in the perspective of the years to come.